Community comes together to help Fayette County man whose furnace broke

As temperatures dipped this week, the dangerous cold became more than just uncomfortable for one Fayette County man.

Daniel Batovsky said he lost heat inside his home this week after his furnace stopped working.

"I didn't go out and check, it was too cold. I thought I had enough oil in there," Batovsky said.  

Batovsky told KDKA-TV that he thought he had a quarter tank of oil left to keep his furnace running for another two weeks when it ran out on Tuesday.

"We got a phone call that there was a man living very close to here, that didn't have any heat for two days and his house was 30 degrees," Grindstone Volunteer Fire Department Chief Rich Lenk said.

Lenk said his department couldn't offer Batovsky to come to the station to warm up because they had also lost heat after their gas well froze.

"We have heaters, the torpedo heaters, running through the diesel fuel and we didn't think it was safe for him to come here," Lenk said.

That's when Fayette 911 got involved. Lenk said dispatchers found a hotel room for Batovsky to stay in, but he didn't want to leave his home.

"I like it here," Batovsky said. "I was kind of uncomfortable leaving the place."

Lenk said he called Ian Gregory HVAC in Belle Vernon, who installed the heating system at the station. And despite having at least 100 calls for repairs, they stopped and dropped everything. 

"We pulled two of my guys that were heading somewhere else and sent him there to get him taken care of as soon as possible," said owner Ian Gregory. "It was getting to the point where it was dangerous."

Before they arrived, Batovsky said he had more oil delivered to his home, but the furnace still wasn't working.

"It was pretty chilly," Batovsky said. "I was on the couch with a whole bunch of stuff piled up on me."

"The guys were able to lead it and do a tune-up on it and make sure it was running safe and properly for him," Gregory said. "And they stayed to make sure everything heated up and stayed on."

After about two hours, Gregory said the heat was back to normal inside Batovsky's home.

"I can't thank people enough for this," Batovsky said.

"That's what we try to do," Gregory said. "I mean, this is the business we're in, and you got to help people."

"It was great that we didn't have to go over there and get him out of there on some other circumstance," Lenk said. "And that's what would have happened with it being 30 degrees in the house, and it only got colder. Today it's negative four, and he had no heat in the house. He didn't have anything. He didn't have a space heater. He didn't have anything."

"I'm really thankful to all these people that helped me out," Batovsky said.

Gregory said as the cold looks to stick around, residents with a high efficiency furnace should make sure the exhaust pipes are clear from any snow or ice.

"If you have a heat pump, it's always good to maybe switch it to emergency heat," Gregory said. "When it gets as cold as it is right now, heat pumps struggle a little bit. Make sure your filters are changed. And, you know, if you have propane or oil, make sure your tanks are full."